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Poems about sickness navigate the turbulent waters of physical and emotional turmoil. They provide a window into the human experience of pain, vulnerability, and resilience.
These verses may describe the agony of illness, the fear of mortality, or the frustration of limitations imposed by ailing bodies. At the same time, they celebrate the strength and courage displayed by those facing sickness, emphasizing the importance of empathy and compassion in healing.
These poems often remind us of life’s fragility and the value of cherishing our health and the well-being of others.
Within ‘Sick’ Shel Silverstein crafts a humorous story of one child’s attempts to stay home from school. The poem explores the themes of deceit, obligations, and joy.
"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
‘Death of a Young Woman’ by Gillian Clarke depicts how a loved one’s death lets a person free from their inward, endless suffering.
He wept for her and for the hard tasks
He had lovingly done, for the short,
Fierce life she had lived in the white bed,
For the burden he had put down for good.
‘The Miracle of Morning’ by Amanda Gorman is a direct message of hope in the face of suffering. Specifically, Gorman uses this poem to discuss the coronavirus pandemic and its outcome.
I thought I’d awaken to a world in mourning.
Heavy clouds crowding, a society storming.
But there’s something different on this golden morning.
Something magical in the sunlight, wide and warming.
‘Crow Sickened’ is a brilliant example of Hughes’ playful style, in which Crow attempts to work out the cause of his misery.
His illness was something could not vomit him up.
Unwinding the world like a ball of wool
Found the last end tied round his own finger.
‘The Heart Block Poem’ is a short, four-line poem that was written in order to help medical students and medical professionals remember the degrees of heart blocks.
If the R is far from the P, then you’ve got a 1st degree!
PR gets longer, longer, longer, drops, it’s a case of Wenckebach!
If some R’s don’t get through, prepare to pace that Mobitz II!
If the R’s & P’s don’t agree, prepare to pace that 3rd degree!
‘Night Sister’ celebrates nurses, blending their emotional depth with the stark realities of care through poignant verse.
How is it possible not to grow hard,
To build a shell around yourself when you
Have to watch so much pain, and hear it too?
‘Plague’ by Jackie Kay is a poem about death, specifically about the plague in London and how a mother is forced to contend with the knowledge that both her sons are going to die.
Our black door has a white X.
‘Sequence in a Hospital’ by Elizabeth Jennings speaks on the hopes, fears, and routines that develop during a long stay at a hospital.
Like children now, bed close to bed,
With flowers set up where toys would be
In real childhoods, secretly
We cherish each our own disease,
The poem ‘Sheep In Fog’ describes Sylvia Plath’s feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, helplessness, and depression.
The hills step off into whiteness.
People or stars
Regard me sadly, I disappoint them.
‘Sonnet 154,’ also known as ‘The little Love-god lying once asleep,’ describes how impossible it is for the speaker to rid himself of his love. There’s nothing he can do to stop loving the Dark Lady.
The little Love-god lying once asleep,
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand
‘The Old Fools’ by Philip Larkin is a poem about what happens when one grows older and begins to forget about their life.
What do they think has happened, the old fools,
To make them like this? Do they somehow suppose
It’s more grown-up when your mouth hangs open and drools,
And you keep on pissing yourself, and can’t remember
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